Type action system for portable typewriters



A ril 25, 1950 J. L. A. BOREL TYPE ACTION SYSTEM FOR PORTABLETYPEWRITERS Filed July 25, 1945 Patented Apr. 25, 1950 TYPE ACTIONSYSTEM FOR PORTABLE TYPEWRITERS Joseph-'LoulsAdhmar'Borel, Paris,France, as-

signontmsociete Rooy, a- French joint-stock company:

Application July 25; 1945, Serial No. 606,906 In'Fr'ance June 10, 1944Section 1, Public Law 690-, August 8, 1946 Batent expires June-10, 1964:

1.Claim. l

My'invention has for its object atypewriter ofthe socalled portabletype.

Obviously, if a typewriter is to be ranked in this class, it must firsthave the:least p0ssib1e bulk; above all in height, in order tofacilitate its handling and carrying.

A rathergreat number of so-called portable typewriters have been put onthe market which,

in spite of the substantial difference existing between their h ight andthose of the so-called oflice t pewriters, are nevertheless still muchtoo high and cumbersome to allow their practical carrying by the user.

The following description and accompanying drawiws given out by way of anon-limitative example will allow a proper understanding of the mann rof executing my invention. In said drawings;

Fig; 1 is-a vertical cross-section of the typewriten Figs.-- 2, 3 and 4are fragmentary sectional views allowing a comparison between the typebars according to my invention and the similar arrangement in commonuse.

Up to the present, for the purpose of decreasin t e height of the knownportable typewriters, it -had been deemed suflicient to crowd togetherthe-main elements that exist in every oilice typewriter withoutincorporating thereto those important modifications which areindispensable for the. production of very low typewriters. According tomy invention, the height can be out down to even less than fortymillimeters, and for that purpo e the entire device comprisesarrangements whereb as will be described later on, two capital obje tons to usual portable typewriters can be avoided, viz:

(a) the ori inal he ht of the whole typing system: said height will be ct down as a. result of a widening to the utmost of the angle of actionof the type bars:

(1)) the height of the t pes above the base of the typewriter, whichheight generally tends to increase from the central bar towards eitherend. bar: a considerable reduction in such height will be secured by theprovision of two different kinds of type bars.

In the drawings, I and l designate two of the type bars one of which isin operative position with reference to the cylinder or platen it whilethe oth r is in its position of rest in contact with the cushion 9.

2 designates the sector carrying a curved rod 3 to which the type barsare fulcrumed.

A wire link 4 connects the type bar I with an H 1 is 2. intermediarylever 5 while a furtherywirelink connects the bar I with theintermediarylever 5 These intermediary levers 5-5 are pivotally securedto-a curved rod 6 mounted on a support 6. Links l and I connect theintermediate levers with the key levers 8 and 8 Hand designatetyping-keys. and I2 the support for key levers 8:' I3 is the fulcrum rodfor'the key levers and I! thetype bar return Since all thetype-.barsareactuated similarly itz'will'fheassumed in the following,-inorder-to simplify. the description, that the bar; I provided with'itsactuating gear is nothing else than bar L likewise provided withitsactuating gear, transferred from its inoperative position on :gsiionS into its operative position on platen l4 z 1).

If now the key H on key lever 8 occupying then the position shown (indash-and-dot lin s inzFig. 1) be depressed for the purpose of printing-a sign, said lever will be caused to rock on rod !3 and to assumethe position shown in full lines in Fig. 1.

During'the said movement of'lever 8 the arm 8 oi'said'lever. has pushedtowards the left the link i which. being fulcrumed on the intermediatelever 5 pivoted on 6 has thro n aid lever from its position 5 into itspo ition 5, this causing through link 4 the actuation of bar I which,being fulcrumed onrod 3, is swung from its inoperative position i intoits operative position I on platen [4.

It will be seen on F g. 1 that the point of articulation of link 4 onlever 5 has described the arc i5 and that the point of articulation oflink 4 on the type bar I has described the arc l6. Such an arrangementthus enables the point of articulation of link 4 on type bar I to decribe about the fulcrum rod 3 an arc which is kinematically available ona very wide angle, e. g. 130' and even more, this resulting, as shown inFig. l in a considerable flattening of the tvpe bar basket, this resultbeing obtained without any gear work.

In addition, as shown in the drawings and as a result of the particulararrangement that will be described later on. the special shapes of thetype bars I, intermediate levers 5 and key levers 8 enable the same tobe lodged and to move in a very low space (Fig. 1).

In this printing device the fulcrum rods 3 and 6 carried by the sector 2and the support for the intermediary levers 5 are curved on arcsconcentric with the bend point of the type bars.

- 3 and located in parallel planes at an angle with respect to the baseof the typewriter; the support for the key levers I2 is straight andarranged at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the typewriter.

With the printing device described a type basket is obtained that isvery shallow in its middle portion, i. e. on the central bars I shown inFigs. 1 and 2, whereas if the sector 2 were fitted all over with barssimilar to I, N, the side bars would come to rest on the circularsupport 6 of the intermediate levers and could not fall back on thecushion 9 as shown at B in Fig. 3. The whole height-saving would thus belost unless this difficulty were overcome as follows:

The explanation will be given with reference to the end bar which in thepresent instance corcharacteristics of this invention as defined in theaccompanying claim.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

A portable typewriter comprising key levers, a horizontal straightfulcrum rod having the said key levers pivoted thereon, type bars, afulcrum rod curved in a sloping plane and having the type bars pivotedthereon, an intermediate curved fulcrum rod between the aforesaid ones,intermediate levers pivoted on said intermediate fulcrum rod, fixedsupports on which the three fulcrum rods are mounted, wire connectionsbetween the intermediate levers and said key levers and type bars, theintermediate fulcrum rod and its support having their ends at a higherlevel than their middle portions, 9. horizontal curved cushresponds tothe furthest position of type I above V cushion 9.

The end type bar in Figs. 3 and 4 is designated When considering Fig. 3it will be found that the bar I as it swings back towards the keyboardcomes into engagement with the support 6 at point 18.

By transferring said point 18 to Figs. 3 and 4 the position is obtainedwhich is shown in Fig. 3 where said bar is supposed to be identical tobar I in Fig. 2; the height of the typewriter as represented by thearrow 20 (Figs. 2 to 4) would thus be increased by the height l9, whichwould amount to height 2|. Of course, such heights are given only asindications. In order to decrease the overall size the type i must bebrought down to the level of cushion 9. For that purpose a special shapeshown at I (Fig. 4) is given to the type bar.

It is apparent that bar i is shaped to fit the outline of the support 6and that the type carried by said bar can rest on cushion 9.

Consequently, the typewriter is provided with two kinds of type bars,viz.: central bars I (Figs. 1 and 2) and end bars I (Fig. 4).

24 in Figs. 2 to 4 locates vertically the fulcrum rod 3 of the centraltype bar I 25 indicates the height of the side portions of rod 3 withrespect to the middle portion 24, and 26 indicates the position of thesupport 6 with respect to 25.

The above described arrangements are mentioned'by way of example only,since the shapes, sizes and details of construction and application canbe modified without departing from the ion serving to support the typebars in their rearmost positions, said type bars being of two differentkinds, those in the side portions being offset downwardly at the rear ofthe intermediate lever support to compensate for the difierence in thelevels of their fulcrums and those of the bars in the middle portion insuch manner that the horizontal cushion on which the free ends of allbars come to rest can be located at a short vertical distance above theintermediate lever fulcrum rod.

JOSEPH LOUIS ADHEMAR BOREL.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 915,662 Daugherty Mar. 16. 19091,417,304 Dobson May 23, 1922 1,451,203 Carpenter Apr. 10, 19231,468,880 Latta Sept. 25, 1923 1,474,917 Schluns Nov. 20, 1923 1,674,273Barr June 19, 1928 1,680,135 Dobson Aug. 7. 1928 1,803,125 Norin Apr.28, 1931 1,834,520 Fray Dec. 1, 1931 2,039,991 Haas May 5, 19362,171,688 Dobson Sept. 5, 1939 2,176,628 Helmond Oct. 1'7, 19392,343,321 Pascher Mar. 7, 1944

